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Home Working Causes Bosses to Increase Automation

Business owners in 45 countries are being forced to ramp up automation as many of their workers operate from home during the coronavirus.

Business owners around the world are increasingly looking to automation to keep their businesses running as staff work at home during the coronavirus outbreak.

According to data collected by EY, 41% of survey respondents say that they are preparing for a post-crisis world by investing in automation for their businesses.

In a nine day period, 477,000 people across the UK applied for universal credit due to job losses from COVID-19. The loss of staff has left many businesses low on the necessary manpower required for them to run.

Steve Krouskos from EY said: “The human cost is the most tragic aspect of this crisis, not only in terms of the lives lost, but also the number of livelihoods at risk.

“As business leaders respond with urgency to the unprecedented impact that Covid-19 is having globally, workforce welfare and job preservation will be at the top of their minds.”

43% of the 2,900 executives surveyed said they expected business to return to normal by the third quarter of 2020. But, until then, 73% said Covid-19 would have a “severe impact” on the global economy.

The survey also found that most companies were already planning major transformation before COVID-19. Once the county returns to normal, they would focus on new investment in digital and technology.

Krouskos continued: “Business leaders are seeing their transformation plans paused or slowed currently. With these plans set to restart, possibly with added energy, once the situation stabilises, executives will have to make faster moves to reimagine, reshape and reinvent their business and create long-term value.”

As business processes begin to change across the world due to the advancement of technology and more people begin working from home, many employers and employees are unprepared for the challenges brought on by coronavirus.

A recent poll of 14,500 working professionals by recruiting company Hays showed that, in 2019, two in five employees did not have the correct qualifications for their roles, and businesses were unprepared for staff having to potentially work from home or rely on automation to continue working.

The data also revealed that that more than half of employers across all sectors have a workforce that lacks digital skills. Despite more than a third of Generation Z, 32% of men and 21% of women, believing that they are technology ‘experts’, 41% of employees and 30% of employers say providing support with training and upskilling is the most important way for a business to prepare for automation.